Whooooosh!
I have to admit, my eyes did widen a bit as I watched both a thong and a bra being thrown on stage at The Beaches’ show. The sentiment made sense, though, because the Toronto-based pop rock girlies put on a performance worth fangirling over.
Let me introduce you to the girls:
The Beaches consist of Jordan Miller doing lead vocals and bass, Kylie Miller (they’re sisters!) doing backing vocals and guitar, Leandra Earl playing keyboard, guitar, and backing vocals, and Eliza Enman-McDaniel on drums. They’re from Toronto, and they’ve been together since 2013–so over a decade now! The band name is a nod to the neighbourhood in Toronto of the same name, where they grew up. They pack a powerful punch, and each member stands out on her own while still maintaining the band’s cohesive image. The Beaches have a distinctive alt-pop/rock style that gives them their signature sound. It’s simple–these girls are rock stars in every sense.
They’re on their Blame Brett tour right now, promoting their second album, “Blame My Ex”, that came out this year. The Vancouver show at the Orpheum on November 12th was sold-out, and it was packed. I’ve always found the Orpheum to be an odd venue for shows like this–the explosive sound contrasts starkly with the ornate, baroque-inspired interior. Regardless, the crowd was electric, and the performance itself was, too.
Pre-Show Thoughts
I was going into this concert as a relatively neutral party–I listened to their album “Blame My Ex” when it came out back in September, and I didn’t have any particular affinity for it. In any case, I enjoy live music, and was curious to see them perform.
Upon arrival, I took notice of the merch they were selling. I was impressed at how nice everything looked–the designs were cute. The red, white, and black colour palette kept in line with the band’s colours, and the shirts featured vintage-inspired SoCal/surfer prints with some silly slogans, like “itty bitty titty pizza delivery”. Also, the merch line was one of the longest I’ve ever seen at a show. These fans did NOT come to play.
The Show
The Beaches had an American pop/indie rock band called (fittingly) Beach Weather as their opener. These guys were pretty good, their set was long, too. They all had a Harry Styles, modern 70s, tight pants kind of look to them, complete with lots of tattoos and long, shaggy hair. They played a good amount of songs off of their album “Pineapple Sunrise” that came out earlier this year in March, including the single “Sex, Drugs, etc.”, which was pretty fun to see live. After a while, though, Beach Weather gave up the spotlight to welcome The Beaches themselves.
The girls kicked off their set with “Kismet”, a song that is not actually about anything break up-related, but rather meeting someone new and being excited about them. This felt like a great song to open the set with–full of energy, and immediately, the crowd was enthralled. I could really get a sense that these fans were passionate. I’ve been to a fair amount of shows now, but even with my sort of outsider’s perspective at this one, I could tell that these were some truly adoring fans.
Jordan and Leandra both had incredible stage presences. Their interactions with the crowd were fun, personal, and made it clear that these girls care about their fans and enjoy fostering connections with them. The two of them definitely seemed to have some great chemistry, too, as they both shared a kiss later on in the show. And I’d like to note that the whole band looked super cute, too. They’ve got such a great balance between skater-girl chic and total punk-rock babe, it’s great to see. The highlight of the night for me was when the underwear got tossed on stage, like I mentioned earlier. I have never seen something like that happen before, so at first I was quite shocked. After The Beaches made it obvious that they thought it was funny, though, I was able to laugh along with them.
Their set alternated between “Blame My Ex” and “Late Show”, their first album from 2017. Overall, it flowed well and kept the audience engaged throughout. It was long, too–they did around 20 songs or so. I also found out that they had opened for the Jonas Brothers the night before, which is huge!
They closed out the night with, of course, an awesome performance of “Blame Brett”, the lead single from “Blame My Ex”. Now, I was already quite familiar with this song, so it was great to dance to it and see it performed live. This is also when everyone truly went nuts. The crowd’s energy was barely containable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone there was belting out the chorus along with the band.
The Beaches put on a show to remember, and it was honestly such a blast. I’m sure this won’t be their last appearance in Vancouver, and they are definitely worth seeing. They’ve got such a vibrant, infectious energy that really makes them shine.